The guitarist Paul Stanley called “one of the greatest rhythm players of all time”
No matter what rock band you look at, whether it’s Kiss, Led Zeppelin or anyone in between, a good rhythm section is absolutely critical.
Yes, when we listen to a lot of rock bands, the thing that we enjoy so much is the chaos that ensues within their music, there’s no escaping that. When you hear a good solo, hard-hitting riffs and screeching vocals, it raises your blood pressure and helps you become even more enamoured with the music you’re already reeling over. However, there has to be a foundation that rock bands can build upon, and this all starts with a good rhythm section.
Geddy Lee once highlighted the fact that the most important member within Led Zeppelin was the bassist, John Paul Jones. While Jones might not have been the most exciting instrumentalist to watch, without him holding the band’s iconic sound together, Led Zeppelin would have sounded less like a great rock band and more like… well… noise.
“The thing that held the whole thing down was John Paul Jones’ bass playing,” explained Lee, “So if you listen to ‘How Many More Times’, I mean, no matter how wild that song gets at times, there’s John Paul Jones just holding it all down in such a fluid way.”
This is a rule which trickled down into all rock bands. You can have the eccentric stuff, sure, it would be sad if you didn’t, but there needs to be a glue that holds it all together. Paul Stanley was once talking about the importance of good rhythm guitarists and, in doing so, let slip the musician he thought was the best at getting the job done. It was none other than AC/DC’s legendary Malcolm Young.
In his praise of Young, Stanley highlighted the fact that when people listen to AC/DC, their eyes and ears immediately turn towards Angus Young, the short, uniformed eccentric delivering face-melting solos and running around the stage as if it’s an athletics track. This is all well and good, but Young wouldn’t be able to play in such a way without Malcolm Young laying down the iconic riffs that set AC/DC apart.
“He came after me, but I have to mention Malcolm Young,” said Stanley, “Of course, we know that he’s one of the greatest rhythm players of all time. If you spent any time listening to AC/DC’s music, you’d know that while Angus is an incredible lead player, Malcolm Young is clearly the foundation that allows Angus to do what he does so well.”
Kiss are a band who have always been able to celebrate creative freedom. Their iconic image means that regardless of what kind of music they’re dabbling with, it will be unmistakably Kiss because it’s those iconic figures playing it. This is a great freedom for musicians to have, but it also makes life hard for the rhythm section, who are trying to hold down a sound that may be at risk of going off the rails. Stanley said that when he plays in Kiss, he believes he channels something similar to Young, which allows the band to experiment and push themselves.
“It’s not entirely the same, and Kiss is a different band from AC/DC, but I do have a similar mentality,” he said, “And like I said earlier, if you understand what Kiss does as a band, you can hear that, especially when we play live.”
